An early Christian psalter

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BY

RENDEL HARRIS

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JAMES NISBET 6? CO., LIMITED

22 BERNERS STREET, W.
1909

MAY 1 s 1668

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON 6* Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

PREFACE

THE little book from which the following extracts
have been made was announced as forthcoming in
the Contemporary Review for last April, when a brief
account was given of its recovery, and some indication
of its importance, both for the spiritual interpretation
of Christianity and for the right understanding of the
early Christian history and doctrine. Since then it
has been published in a complete form, in the ancient
Syriac version from which it was recovered, and with
such annotations as are desired by scholars. It has,
however, seemed to me that the book transcends in
importance the field of attention of the scholar, and
appeals, in its devotional interest, to the ' even Chris
tian ' of whom Shakespeare speaks — the man or woman
4 in the street ' of the spiritual city, the people who
know how to sing, better than they understand how
to translate an Eastern language or comment upon
an ancient book. For them, therefore, these pages

vi PREFACE

have been prepared, on the assumption that they love
the good music of the soul, and have fellowship with
the saints therein.

Some omissions have been made, from the recovered
book of Psalms, on the ground that certain of the
pieces did not harmonise with the spirit of devotion,
and could not form a part of a perennial Psalter. It
is even probable that they did not come from the
same author, or authors, to whom the rest of the
collection can be referred. It must be admitted, how
ever, that even in modern hymn-writers we occasionally
find the grotesque mingled with the sublime, and the
commonplace thrust in amongst the inspired ; only,
when we are preparing a spiritual handbook, we natu
rally leave such fantastic, or unequal, or unworthy
songs on one side, and go our way heavenward with
the rest. It is certainly surprising how few composi
tions of a doubtful character, whether from the stand
point of literature or of spiritual insight, are contained
in these Odes of Solomon. If we cannot say of them
what John Wesley said of the collection of hymns
produced by himself and his brother, that c Here you
will find nothing turgid, &c.,' we may confidently

PREFACE vii

say that we found little that was not helpful in our
book, and almost nothing that had not the reek and
air of Paradise. What little has been removed matters
little, and this is not the place to discuss it further,
nor to invite criticism upon the wisdom of the excisions.
Along with the Psalms themselves — or Odes, as I think
they were originally called — some brief elucidations
are printed, chiefly by way of extract from the larger
volume to which reference has been made. There
seemed to be a necessity for some slight explanations
or expansions of the sacred themes upon which the
writers of the Odes were engaged ; but here again
the value of the compositions was seen, in that so
very little sufficed by way of explanation, and that so
much of what has come to us was universal Christian
language and genuine mother-speech.

For the benefit of those who have not followed
the earlier announcements of the book, or who may
not have access to the larger volume, it may be well
to state that these Odes, ascribed artificially to Solomon,
have been found in a Syriac MS. in my own possession,
along with an already-known collection of Psalms of

Solomon. In neither case is the reference to Solomon

b

Vlll

PREFACE

anything more than a transparent artifice, many instances
of which occur in the Christian literature and elsewhere.
In neither case are we carried back into the times of the
early Jewish monarchy, for it can be shown that the
Psalms of Solomon were written in Jerusalem about
half a century before Christ, and I think it can also
be proved that the Odes of Solomon belong to
Palestine as their origin, and to a date which cannot
differ much from the close of the first century after
Christ. It is impossible to say whether the name
' Odes of Solomon ' was attached to them by the first
writer or first editor of the collection. The ascrip
tion must, however, be very early, for we find a
number of the Odes quoted as from Solomon in a
curious Gnostic book, which goes under the name of
the Pistis Sophia. This strange book, so valuable to
us for the precious fragments which it incorporates,
cannot be dated later than the third century. The
author of the book found these Odes of Solomon
bound up with his Psalms of David, so the title must
be very early. But neither in the case of the Odes
nor of the Psalms ascribed to Solomon is the author's
name to be taken seriously.

PREFACE ix

Both of the collections ascribed to Solomon are of
the highest importance for the history of Messianic
beliefs. In the one case you have the Messianic song
before sunrise, in the other the great hope has been
turned into the great reality, and ' the first low matin
chirp has grown full quire.'

They are songs of the spring-time, too, as well as
songs of the dark and of the dawn. When you hear
them, instead of saying, ' That is the nightingale/ you
will say, ' I hear a primitive Christian ' — who is, indeed,
the spiritual analogue of the bird that sings in the
' propitious May.' Of that song it was said that
the same hath oft-times

' Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in fairy-lands forlorn.'

But these spiritual songs have the windows open for
us upon our own country. Come to the casement,
and you will see a land of corn and wine and oil.
Here are the wide-spread joys of the kingdom of
heaven. Here grow the Divine promises, by which
men become holy, and here radiates Divine Grace,
by which they become exultant in Christ their Lord,
and rejoice in God their Saviour. Am I wrong in

x PREFACE

hoping that this little book, unexpectedly recovered
from obscurity into daylight, may be one of the means
which God, in the present day, has chosen to bring
to our remembrance the greatness of our calling and
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints ?

RENDEL HARRIS.

SELLY OAK, BIRMINGHAM,
November 1909.

Cimstfan psalter

ODE i

THE Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall not
be without Him. They wove for me a crown of
truth, and it caused thy branches to bud in me. For
it is not like a withered crown which buddeth not :
but Thou livest upon my head, and Thou hast
blossomed upon my head. Thy fruits are full-grown
and perfect, they are full of thy salvation.

ODE i. This Ode is not in our Syriac MS., but in the
Coptic version of the Pistis Sophia, where it is said to be the
1 9th Ode of Solomon. I have identified it with the missing
first Ode of our collection, on the supposition that, in the collec
tion of Solomonic Psalms known to the author of the Pistis
Sophia, the eighteen Psalms of Solomon stood first, and not, as
in the Syriac collection, in the last place. The question is
discussed, more at length, under Ode 5. The argument of the
Psalm is that God is the crown of the soul, whose supreme
experience is the knowledge of His truth. This crown is of
the amarant variety ; it fadeth not away. On the contrary,
it buds and blossoms and is full of immortal fruit. The simili
tude is not uncommon in the book of Odes to which we have
placed this Psalm as an introduction.

A

2 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

ODE 3. (Beginning lost)

... I put on : And his members are with him.
And on them do I hang, and he loves me: for I
should not have known how to love the Lord, if He
had not loved me. For who is able to distinguish
love, except the one that is loved. I love the Beloved,
and my soul loves Him : and where His rest is, there
also am I ; and I shall be no stranger, for with the
Lord Most High and Merciful there is no grudging.
I have been united to Him, because I find love to the
Beloved, and because I love Him that is the Son, that
I may myself be a son ; for he that is joined to Him
that is immortal, will also himself become immortal ;
and he who is accepted in the Living One, will become
living. This is the Spirit of the Lord, which doth not
lie, which teacheth the sons of men to know His ways.
Be wise and understanding and vigilant. Hallelujah.

ODE 3. This Psalm, of which the first verses have dis
appeared along with the leaves that contained the first two
Psalms, is evidently a Christian product ; the author is a
mystic with a doctrine, or rather an experience, of union with
the Son. With him his whole nature has become mingled,
as water is mixed with wine. In Pauline language, he has
been joined to the Lord, and has become one spirit with him.

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 3

In Johannine language, because the beloved lives, he himself
lives also. He has, at least in hope and faith, attained im
mortality through union with the Living One. The name
here given to Christ is very ancient ; it has been detected by
the Revisers of the English New Testament in the Apocalypse
(<I am the Living One'), and it is found in the opening
sentences of the Sayings of Jesus, recovered in recent years
from Egypt : ( < these are the words . . . which Jesus the
Living One spake,' etc.)

Other Johannine touches are the doctrine that 'we love
Him because He first loved us.' For the Psalmist tells us that
* he should not have known how to love the Lord if the Lord
had not loved him.'

ODE 4

No man, O my God, changeth thy holy place ;
and it is not [possible] that he should change it
and put it in another place : because he hath no
power over it : for thy sanctuary thou hast designed
before thou didst make [other] places : that which
is the elder shall not be altered by those that are
younger than itself. Thou hast given thy heart,
O Lord, to thy believers : never wilt thou fail, nor
be without fruits : for one hour of thy Faith is
more precious than all days and years. For who
is there that shall put on thy grace, and be hurt ?
For thy seal is known : and thy creatures know it :

4 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

and thy [heavenly] hosts possess it : and the elect
archangels are clad with it. Thou hast given us
thy fellowship : it was not that thou wast in need
of us : but that we are in need of thee : distil thy
dews upon us and open thy rich fountains that pour
forth to us milk and honey : for there is no repentance
with thee that thou shouldest repent of anything
that thou hast promised : and the end was revealed
before thee : for what thou gavest, thou gavest freely :
so that thou mayest not draw them back and take
them again : for all was revealed before thee as
God, and ordered from the beginning before thee :
and thou, O God, hast made all things. Hallelujah.

ODE 4. This Psalm is one of the most important in
the whole collection, on account of the historical allusion
with which it commences. The reference to an unsuccess
ful attempt to alter the site of the Sanctuary of the Lord
can only be explained by some unknown movement to carry
on the Jewish worship outside the desolated and proscribed
sanctuary, or by the closing of the Jewish temple at Leontopolis
in Egypt, which was, perhaps, itself in the first instance built
under the pressure of the situation which resulted in the
desecration of the temple at Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes.
As the latter explanation leans on fact, rather than on
hypothesis, we may accept it provisionally as the real in
terpretation of our Psalm, which is thus dated soon after

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 5

A.D. 73, when the temple of Onias was closed and dismantled
by the Romans. The writer of the Psalm, if not of Jewish
origin, is, at least, Jewish in sympathy : he holds the Jewish
belief that the Sanctuary at Jerusalem was older than the
world in which it stood ; it was, according to Rabbinic
teaching, prior to all other created things : thus we find
in Bereshith Rabbah that * seven things were created before
the world — Thorah, Gehenna, the Garden of Eden, the
Throne of Glory, the Sanctuary, Repentance and the name
of Messiah.' The proofs of these pre-existent creations can
easily be made from the Scriptures : e.g. < the Lord God
had planted a garden in Eden from afore-time ' (Gen. ii. 8),
and so on. The matter is discussed with some detail in
Pirqe Aboth vi. IO : * Five possessions possessed the Holy One,
blessed is He, in His world : and these are they : Thorah,
one possession ; Heaven and Earth, one possession ; Abraham,
one possession : Israel, one possession ; the Sanctuary, one
possession : .

The Sanctuary : whence [is it proved] ? Because it is
written, The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee
to dwell in, the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have
established (Exod. xv. 17) : and it saith, And He brought
them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain,
which His right hand had possessed (Ps. Ixxviii. 54).' This
Rabbinical belief has affected the mind of our Psalmist,
who comments upon the fall of the Egyptian temple un-
sympathetically, and evidently has his heart set amongst the
ruins of the Sanctuary at Jerusalem. He does not think
the covenant between God and the people of Israel is dis
annulled ; all God's promises are irrevocable ; his gifts and
callings are without repentance on his part. But there

6 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

are no lamentations on the part of the writer over the ruins
of Jerusalem ; the temple which is in his thoughts has
not developed a wailing-place. God has sealed His own
people with the marks of His ownership. All creation,
and both worlds, recognise this seal. And He is able to
pour out blessings on His chosen, comparable to the dew
of heaven, and the milk and honey of the earth. If we
please, we may definitely call it a Judaeo-Christian Psalm :
and it might very well have been composed by one of the
refugees at Pella. It is not easy to see how it could have
been written outside Palestine, nor by a purely Jewish hand.

There are no Scripture references ; perhaps the nearest
parallel is Rom. xi. 29 (* the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance.'

ODE 5

I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, because I
love thee ; O most High, thou wilt not forsake me,
for thou art my hope : freely I have received thy
grace, I shall live thereby. My persecutors will come
and not see me : a cloud of darkness shall fall on their
eyes ; and an air of thick gloom shall darken them :
and they shall have no light to see : that they may not
take hold upon me. Let their counsel become thick
darkness, and what they have cunningly devised, let it
return upon their own heads : for they have devised a
counsel, and it did not succeed : they have prepared

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 7

themselves for evil, and were found to be empty. For
my hope is upon the Lord, and I will not fear, and
because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear :
and he is as a garland on my head and I shall not be
moved ; even if everything should be shaken, I stand
firm ; and if all things visible should perish, I shall
not die : because the Lord is with me and I am with
Him. Hallelujah.

ODE 5. The interest of this Psalm lies in the fact that
at this point we begin to strike the region of coincidences with
the Gnostic book, known as the Pistis Sophia. The Ode has
been used, apparently, in the composition of two Odes or Pro
phecies of Solomon, quoted respectively by Salome and the
Virgin.

Salome recites nearly the whole of the Ode, with some
slight variations and expansions : and it is possible that one or
two clauses may be missing in the Syriac and may be capable
of restoration from the Coptic.

The remaining portion of the Ode before us appears, at
first sight, from the parallelism of the first sentence, to be the
same as what is given in the Pistis Sophia as the recitation of
the Virgin from the I9th Ode of Solomon. But we have
suggested that the supposed iQth Ode of the Coptic writer is
the first of our collection, and that it followed on the eighteen
Psalms of Solomon.

Whether this fifth Ode is Christian or not, does not appear
decisively at the first reading. It opens in a rather Jewish
strain of praise, accompanied by prayer for the discomfiture of

8 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

enemies. If there is a definite Christian feature, perhaps it is
the garland upon the singer's head, which appears in several
other Odes. In the iyth Ode, for example, we get the same
figure, and here the theme is the praise of the Messiah for His
triumph over Hades. This must, of course, be Christian.

The crown is a crown of life — that i's, a living crown or
garland : and this meaning is carefully brought out in the
Coptic Ode, which explains that the crown does not wither,
but (like Aaron's rod), it buds and bears fruit. We have similar
allusions and explanations to the crown of life in the New
Testament, as in I Pet. v. 4 — 'a crown of glory, or glorious
crown, which does not fade away.' The close of the Ode is
a noble expression of trust in the Lord, amidst adverse circum
stances, which one instinctively compares with the close of
the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. It may be
regarded as a Christian composition, on account of its affinity
with other Odes that are certainly Christian, as well as on
account of its intrinsic spiritual value.

ODE 6

As the han i moves over the harp, and the strings
speak, so speaks in my members the Spirit of the Lord,
and I speak by His love. For He destroys everything
foreign, and everything that is bitter : for thus it
was from the beginning and will be to the end,
that nothing should be His adversary, and nothing
should stand up against Him. The Lord has multi
plied the knowledge of Himself, and is zealous that

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 9

these things should be known, which by His grace
have been given to us. And the praise of His name
He gave us. Our spirits praise His holy Spirit. For
there went forth a stream and became a river great
and broad ; for it flooded and broke up everything
and it brought [water] to the temple : and the
restrainers of the children of men were not able
to restrain it, nor the arts of those whose business
it is to restrain waters ; for it spread over the face of
the whole earth, and filled everything : and all the
thirsty upon earth were given to drink of it ; and
thirst was relieved and quenched : for from the Most
High the draught was given. Blessed then are the
ministers of that draught who are intrusted with that
water of His : they have assuaged the dry lips, and the
will that had fainted they have raised up ; and souls
that were near departing they have caught back from
death : and limbs that had fallen they straightened and
set up : they gave strength for their feebleness and light
to their eyes: for every one knew them in the Lord, and
they lived by the water of life for ever. Hallelujah.

ODE 6. In this Psalm again we are fortunate in having
a large part of the Coptic text preserved to us. What is
described in the Psalm is ' the preaching of the Gospel which

io AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

no human effort can avail to hinder.' We must also re
cognise a reference to the waters in Ezekiel which go forth
from the temple. But there is a suggestive difference in our
Psalm from the parable in Ezekiel : in the Syriac text the
stream appears to rise elsewhere than in the temple, and
part of its function is to water the temple. It is a river
deep and broad before it reaches the temple. If this be
what is intended, then the restrainers who build dykes to
keep waters out or cisterns to keep them in are very likely
the temple officials themselves, who were often hard put
to it to hinder the propaganda of the new religion within
the limits of the Holy Place.

The writer is exultant in his universalism ; the stream
of living water has gone out into all the earth : thirsty souls
everywhere have been refreshed by it : dying souls have
been revived.

The writer is as universal as St. Paul. But he is not
so detached from Judaism as not to know that the living
water was connected with the temple. Perhaps, then, he
is a Judaeo-Christian of an enlightened type. Some things
seem to intimate the presence of Johannine phraseology and
ideas. The Johannine features, however, do not appear to
us to be directly due to the Gospel : if such a long com
position had been under Johannine influence, it would have
betrayed its ancestry more definitely. Neither here nor else
where does it seem possible definitely to convict the Psalms
of having borrowed from St. John. On the other hand
there is one expression which recalls a sentence in I Cor.,
where the writer says that God is zealous * that those things
should be known, which have been given us by His grace ' :
this is very like I Cor. ii. 12, ' that we may know the things

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER n

that have been freely given us of God.' Whether the coin
cidence should be pressed will depend to some extent upon the
existence of further and similar echoes of New Testament
speech.

ODE 7

As the impulse of anger against evil, so is the im
pulse of joy over what is lovely, and brings in of its
fruits without restraint. My joy is the Lord and my
impulse is toward Him : this is my excellent path : for
I have a helper, the Lord. He has caused me to
know Himself, without grudging, by His simplicity :
the greatness of His kindness has humbled me. He
became like me, in order that I might receive Him :
He was reckoned like myself in order that I might put
Him on ; and I trembled not when I saw Him : be
cause He is my salvation. Like my nature He became
that I might learn Him and like my form, that I
might not turn back from Him : the Father of know
ledge is the word of knowledge : He who created
wisdom is wiser than His works : and He who created
me, when yet I was not, knew what I should do when
I came into being : wherefore He pitied me in His
abundant grace : and granted me to ask from Him and
to receive from His sacrifice : because He it is that is

12 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

incorrupt, the fulness of the ages and the Father of
them.

He hath given Him to be seen of them that are
His, in order that they may recognise Him that made
them : and that they might not suppose that they came
of themselves. For He hath appointed to knowledge
its way, He hath widened it and extended it ; and
brought it to all perfection ; and set over it the traces
of His light, and it goeth from the beginning even to
the end. For by Him it was wrought, and it was
resting in the Son, and for its salvation He will take
hold of everything : and the Most High shall be known
in His Saints, to announce to those that have songs of
the coming of the Lord ; that they may go forth to
meet Him, and may sing to Him with joy and with
the harp of many tones. The seers shall come before
Him and they shall be seen before Him, and they shall
praise the Lord for His love : because He is near and
beholdeth, and hatred shall be taken from the earth,
and along with jealousy it shall be drowned : for ignor
ance has been destroyed, because the knowledge of the
Lord has arrived. They who make songs shall sing the
grace of the Lord Most High ; and they shall bring
their songs, and their heart shall be like the day : and

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 13

like the excellent beauty of the Lord their pleasant
song. And there shall neither be anything that
breathes without knowledge, nor any that is dumb :
for He has given a mouth to His creation, to open
the voice of the mouth towards Him, to praise
Him : confess ye His power, and show forth His
grace. Hallelujah.

ODE 7. In this Psalm the writer dilates joyfully on the
theme of the Incarnation, and the combination of lowliness
and wisdom that are involved therein. The condescension
of Christ to human form is not only a sympathetic approach
to human conditions, it is also a divine welcome. He says
*• Come unto me ' by coming unto us. c Like my nature He
became that I might learn of Him.'

But the incarnate Messiah is still the maker and sustainer
of all things, in whom all things consist. The knowledge of
this revelation produces praise and expectation — praise for those
who sing His advent, expectation for those who look for His
triumphant rule among men. All evil is to pass away, and all
hate. The saints who sing are already exulting in the new
life which He has bestowed upon them.

ODE 8

Open ye, open ye your hearts to the exultation
of the Lord ; and let your love be multiplied from
the heart and even to the lips, to bring forth fruit to
the Lord, living fruit, holy fruit ; and to talk with

i4 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

watchfulness in His light. Rise up, and stand erect,
ye who sometime were brought low : tell forth, ye who
were in silence, that your mouth has been opened. Ye,
therefore, that were despised, be henceforth lifted up,
because your righteousness has been exalted. For the
right hand of the Lord is with you : and He is your
helper: and peace was prepared for you, before ever
your war was. Hear the word of truth, and receive
the knowledge of the Most High. Your flesh has
not known what I am saying to you : neither have
your hearts known what I am showing to you. Keep
my secret, ye who are kept by it. Keep my faith, ye
who are kept by it. And understand my knowledge,
ye who know me in truth. Love me with affection,
ye who love : for I do not turn away my face from
them that are mine ; for I know them, and before they
came into being, I took knowledge of them, and on
their faces I set my seal : I fashioned their members :
my own breasts I prepared for them that they might
drink my holy milk and live thereby. I took pleasure
in them and am not ashamed of them : for my work
manship are they and the strength of my thoughts :
who then shall rise up against my handiwork, or who
is there that is not subject to them? I willed and

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 15

fashioned mind and heart : and they are mine, and by
my own right hand I set my elect ones : and if my
righteousness had not been before them . . . and they
shall not be deprived of my name : for it is with
them. Ask and abound, and abide in the love of the
Lord, and ye beloved ones in the Beloved : those who
are kept, in Him that liveth : and they that are saved in
Him that was saved. And ye shall be found incorrupt
in all ages to the name of your Father. Hallelujah.

ODE 8. This Psalm again is Johannine in many of its
ideas and expressions. But, even when this is conceded, it is
difficult to prove a direct dependence on the Fourth Gospel.

The Psalm is, like a number of others, marked by a sudden
transition of personality from the Psalmist or Prophet to the
Lord Himself : after the writer has addressed those who have
been lifted up out of affliction and have found peace after war,
he suddenly, in prophetic manner, cries out, c Hear the word
of the Lord,' ' Receive the heavenly knowledge,' and then
proceeds to speak in the person of the Lord. The same
abrupt transitions are found in the canonical Psalter, and they
appear to have characterised the Montanist inspirations. It
will be remembered that Montanus describes his own spiritual
exaltation in the words : ' Behold ! the man is as a lyre, and I
sweep over him as the plectrum. The man sleeps and I wake.
Behold ! it is the Lord, who estranges the souls of men from
themselves, and gives men souls.' The same address by the
Lord in the first person is in the utterance of Maximilla, the
Montanist prophetess, who said, ' 1 am chased as a wolf from

1 6 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

the midst of the flock. I am no wolf ; I am word, and spirit,
and power.'

The language of Montanus finds a close parallel in the
opening of the sixth Psalm, where the writer says, * As the
hand moves over the harp, and the strings speak, so speaks in
my members the Spirit of the Lord.' This might easily be
claimed as a Montanist utterance, and I can imagine that on
account of these and similar sayings, the whole Psalter might
be claimed as a Montanist product. But the sentiments are
simply Christian, on a high experimental plane ; and we must
not forget that one of the chief characteristics of Montanism
is its attempt to perpetuate the life of the primitive Church.
Towards the end of the Psalm the prophet returns abruptly to
speech in his own name. There seems to be some breach of
continuity in the discourse, as well as a change of personality,
and I have suggested that a sentence has dropped in the Syriac
text.

I do not know whether the allusion to an actual war,
from which the saints have emerged or escaped, is to be taken
literally. If it be a literal, and not a spiritual reference, the
choice will lie between the Jewish war under Titus or that
under Hadrian ; in either case we should be in Judaeo-Chris-
tian circles. It is, however, quite possible that the 'war' and
the ' peace ' refer only to spiritual experiences.

ODE 9

Open your ears and I will speak to you. Give
me your souls, that I may also give you my soul,
the word of the Lord and His good pleasures, the

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 17

holy thought which He has devised concerning His
Messiah. For in the will of the Lord is your
salvation, and His thought is everlasting life ; and
your end is immortality. Be enriched in God the
Father, and receive the thought of the Most High.
Be strong and be redeemed by His grace. For
I announce to you peace, to you His saints ; that
none of those who hear may fall in war, and those
again who have known Him may not perish, and
that those who receive may not be ashamed. An
everlasting crown for ever is Truth. Blessed are
they who set it on their heads. A stone of great
price it is ; and there have been wars on account
of the crown. And righteousness hath taken it
and hath given it to you. Put on the crown in the
true covenant of the Lord. And all those who
have conquered shall be written in His book. For
their book is victory which is yours. And she,
(Victory) sees you before her and wills that you
shall be saved. Hallelujah.

ODE 9. This Psalm is, from a historical point of view,
somewhat colourless. The only definite points are the
allusions to the Lord's Messiah, or Christ : and a promise
of peace and deliverance from war, which is made to the

c

1 8 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

saints. Of the first of these allusions, we may say that
while it makes the Psalm a Messianic one, this does not
mean that it is not Christian. The promise of everlasting
life which follows must be the holy thought of God con
cerning the Christ. And this seems to definitely mark out
the Psalm as Christian.

What, then, are we to say of the wars and victory to
which the Psalm refers ; are they spiritual or are they out
ward, or a mixture of both ? We shall have the same
problem before us in other Psalms. From the fact that
Victory is personified and writes a book, with which we
may compare Apoc. iii. 5 (' He that overcometh shall be
clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name
from the book of life '), we may perhaps conclude that the
Victory spoken of is a spiritual one. This is in harmony
with the references to redemption by grace and to the
will of Victory that the saints should be saved. These
are Christian expressions. On the other hand, the promise
that none of those who obey the Lord's word shall fall
in war might have been very strikingly illustrated in the
case of the Christians who escaped to Pella. But even
then the Psalm is a Christian one, and it remains an open
question whether outward allusions may not have been
coupled with inward victories.

ODE 10

The Lord hath directed my mouth by His word :
and He hath opened my heart by His light. And
He hath caused to dwell in me His deathless life ;

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 19

and gave me that I might speak the fruit of His peace :
to convert the souls of them who are willing to
come to Him : and to lead captive a good captivity
for freedom. I was strengthened and made mighty
and took the world captive ; and it became to me
for the praise of the Most High, and of God my
Father. And the Gentiles1 were gathered together
who were scattered abroad. And I was unpolluted
by my love for them, because they confessed me in
high places : and the traces of the light were set upon
their heart : and they walked in life and were saved
and became my people for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

ODE 10. In this vigorous little Psalm Christ must Him
self be accounted the speaker through the mouth of His
prophet ; unless we should prefer to say that any of the
opening sentences are spoken in the Psalmist's own name,
and that after them there is an abrupt alteration of personality,
such as we have already referred to. It is certain, however,
that the one who gathers the peoples together by his love
must be the Messiah : * (unto him shall the gathering of
the peoples be2).' And it can be no psalmist or prophet
who declares that the Gentiles became his people for ever
and ever. The one who goes forth to lead captivity captive
is again the Christ : we have in the New Testament (Eph.
iv. 8) the Messianic interpretation of Ps. Ixviii. 18, 'He

Christ has accepted the Gentiles. 2 Gen. xlix. 10.

20 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

ascended up on high, he led captivity captive ' ; and the
same explanation underlies the Ode before us. The Ode
is, therefore, a Christian one : and its soteriology is universal
in character. But we are still in the region where apologetic
is necessary for the reception of the Gentiles, and where
it does not suffice to quote a verse of the Old Testament and
say that such reception was foretold. In our Ode Christ
explains that the reception of the Gentiles has not polluted
Him. Such language does not belong to the Hellenic world,
nor, we think, to the second century. But it is quite natural
in a Judaeo-Christian community in Palestine in the first
century.

ODE ii

My heart was cloven and its flower appeared ; and
grace sprang up in it : and it brought forth fruit to
the Lord. For the Most High clave my heart by
His Holy Spirit and searched my affection towards
Him : and filled me with His love. And His
opening of me became my Salvation ; and I ran in
His way in His peace, even in the way of truth : from
the beginning and even to the end I acquired His
knowledge : and I was established upon the rock of
truth, where He had set me up : and speaking waters
touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord
without grudging : and I drank and was inebriated
with the living water that doth not die ; and my

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 21

inebriation was not one without knowledge, but I
forsook vanity and turned to the Most High my God.
And I was enriched by His bounty, and I forsook the
folly which is diffused over the earth ; and I stripped
it off and cast it from me : and the Lord renewed me
in His raiment, and possessed me by His light, and
from above He gave me rest in incorruption ; and I
became like the land which blossoms and rejoices in its
fruits ; and the Lord was like the Sun shining on the
face of the land ; He lightened my eyes, and my face
received the dew ; and my nostrils enjoyed the plea
sant odour of the Lord; and He carried me to His
paradise ; where is the abundance of the pleasure of
the Lord. And I worshipped the Lord on account of
His glory ; and I said, Blessed, O Lord, are they who
are planted in thy land ! and those who have a place
in thy Paradise ; and they grow by the fruits of thy
trees ! And they have changed from darkness to light !
Behold ! all thy servants are fair, who do good works,
and turn away from wickedness to the pleasantness
that is thine. And they have turned back the bitter
ness of the trees from them, when they were planted
in thy land ; and everything became like a relic of
thyself, and a memorial for ever of thy faithful works.

22 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

For there is abundant room in thy Paradise, and
nothing is useless therein ; I am altogether filled with
fruit ; glory be to Thee, O God, the delight of Para
dise for ever. Hallelujah.

ODE ii. This lovely Psalm is altogether personal and
experimental : the writer describes the visitations of Divine
Grace, which he calls the cutting open of his heart, and his
establishment upon the rock of eternal truth. He is renewed
by these visitations, as if he had been newly clad in light and
had already reached the eternal rest. He becomes like a land
that drinks in the dew of heaven, and brings forth fruit to
God. He finds himself at last in the Paradise of God and
amongst the fragrant trees of a new creation. He breaks out
into exultant praise of the good things which God has pre
pared for them that love Him.

There are no scriptural references in the Psalm that can
be claimed as quotations, however closely the language approxi
mates to that of the ancient Scriptures. Perhaps the nearest
parallel would be the promise in Apoc. ii. 7, that the one who
overcomes, shall eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of
the Paradise of God.

ODE 12

He hath filled me with words of truth ; that I
may speak the same ; and like the flow of waters
flows truth from my mouth, and my lips show forth
His fruit. And He has caused His knowledge to
abound in me, because the mouth of the Lord is

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 23

the true Word, and the door of His light ; and the
Most High hath given it to His worlds, [worlds]
which are the interpreters of His own beauty, and
the repeaters of His praise, and the confessors of
His counsel, and the heralds of His thought, and
the chasteners of His servants. For the swiftness of
the Word is inexpressible, and like its expression is
its swiftness and force. And its course knows no
limit. Never doth it fail, but it stands sure, and
it knows not decline nor the way of it. For as its
work is, so is its end : for it is light and the dawning
of thought; and by it the worlds talk one to the other;
and in the Word there were those that were silent ; and
from it came love and concord ; and they spake one to
the other whatever was theirs ; and they were penetrated
by the Word ; and they knew Him who made them,
because they were in concord ; for the mouth of the
Most High spake to them ; and His explanation ran
by means of it. For the dwelling-place of the word is
man : and its truth is Love. Blessed are they who
by means thereof have understood everything, and
have known the Lord in His truth. Hallelujah.

ODE 12. This Psalm rises to a high level of spiritual
thought, but for that very reason its language is occasionally

24 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

obscure. The writer describes his own inspiration and how
his heart and lips become filled with the words of God.
Here, as elsewhere, God's fruit is found in the lips of the
faithful, and we are often reminded in these Psalms of the
expression which is borrowed in Heb. xiii. 15, from the
prophet Hosea,1 about offering to God the 4 fruit of lips that
confess to His name.' From the general thought of the words
of God, the writer rises to the abstract idea of the Word of
God, or Logos, which is the totality of God's revelation and
which interpenetrates all things, so that even things that
are silent find their speech in it. But especially this Word,
which is both truth and love, finds its dwelling-place in man.
Happy are they that have come to know Him. Here, perhaps,
we are nearer to Gnostic ideas, such as the doctrine of the
Word and the Silence, than in any other part of the Psalter :
yet there is nothing that can fairly be called Gnostic. We
are also very close to the doctrine of the Logos as we have it
in John, where the Logos becomes flesh and dwells amongst us :
but it is not the Johannine thought of the Incarnation that is
imitated or reproduced. The dwelling of the Logos with man
is personal and not collective ; and we cannot infer from this
Psalm a direct statement of the doctrine of Incarnation, for
the writer does not go beyond Inspiration ; but his thought is
noble, even if, as we have said, it is sometimes obscure, at least
in a translation.

ODE 13

Behold ! the Lord is our mirror : open the eyes
and see them in Him : and learn the manner of your

1 Hos. xiv. 2.

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 25

face : and tell forth praises to His spirit : and wipe off
the filth from your face : and love His holiness, and
clothe yourselves therewith : and be without stain at all
times before Him. Hallelujah.

ODE 13. This strange little Psalm is an exhortation to
holiness : we are to behold the Lord in the beauty of His
holiness, but we are also to see ourselves reflected in God as
in a mirror ; then we shall behold our natural face in an
unexpected glass and know what manner of men we are : and
in that glass we shall cleanse the dirt from off our faces, and
attain to purity. We are reminded of St. Paul's statement that
we behold, as in a mirror, the glory of our Lord and are
transfigured into the same image ; though here the thought is
not as high as in Corinthians, where holiness is found by the
Vision of God rather than by the scrutiny of ourselves.

ODE 14

As the eyes of a son to his father, so are my eyes,
O Lord, at all times towards Thee. For with Thee
are my consolations and my delight. Turn not away
Thy mercies from me, O Lord : and take not Thy kind
ness from me. Stretch out to me, O Lord, at all times
Thy right hand : and be my guide even unto the end,
according to Thy good pleasure. Let me be well-
pleasing before Thee, because of Thy glory and because

26 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

of Thy name : Let me be preserved from evil, and let
Thy meekness, O Lord, abide with me, and the fruits
of Thy love. Teach me the Psalms of Thy truth, that
I may bring forth fruit in Thee. And open to me
the harp of Thy Holy Spirit, that with all its notes I
may praise Thee, O Lord. And according to the
multitude of Thy tender mercies, so Thou shalt give to
me ; and hasten to grant our petitions ; and Thou art
able for all our needs. Hallelujah.

ODE 14. In this Psalm the canonical Psalter is somewhat
more closely imitated than is generally the case with our collec
tion. The opening sentences recall Ps. cxxiii. 2, ' As the eyes
of servants to the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of
a maid to the hand of her mistress, so are our eyes to the Lord
our God.' The prayer that the Lord will be * my guide even
to the end,' recalls Ps. xlviii. 14, i This God is our God for
ever and ever : he will be our guide even unto death.' But
the Psalm is by no means a cento from the canonical Psalter,
even though it does not contain anything that could, at the
first reading, be definitely labelled as Christian.

ODE 15

As the sun is the joy to them that seek for the
daybreak, so is my joy the Lord ; because He is my
Sun and His rays have lifted me up ; and His light

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 27

hath dispelled all darkness from my face. In Him I
have acquired eyes and have seen His holy day : ears
have become mine and I have heard His truth. The
thought of knowledge has been mine, and I have been
delighted by means of it. The way of error I have
left, and have walked towards Him and have received
salvation from Him, without grudging. And accord
ing to His bounty He has given to me, and according
to His excellent beauty He hath made me. I have put
on incorruption through His name : and have put off
corruption by His grace. Death hath been destroyed
before my face : and Sheoi has been abolished by my
word : and there has gone up deathless life in the
Lord's land, and it hath been made known to His faith
ful ones, and hath been given without stint to all those
that trust in Him. Hallelujah.

ODE 15. This beautiful Psalm; like so many others in
the collection, opens with a similitude : these openings are
characteristic of the book, and betray a single writer. This
does not mean that they do not sometimes imitate the opening
of the canonical Psalms. In the present case the i3Oth
Psalm seems to have furnished the key-note, viz. the watchers
for the morning. It is an experimental Psalm of the first
order : the Sun has risen upon the soul of the writer. Eyes,
ears, and heart have all been opened. Salvation has been

28 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

realised : the comeliness of the Lord has been put upon him :
death has lost its terrors, the grave its power.

There is one passage which is either obscure, incorrect, or
extravagant, where the writer says that * Sheol has been
abolished at my word.' Unless there has been a transition of
personality, this seems extravagant, and invites the correction
4 has been abolished at His word.' In any case, I think the
Psalm is a Christian one, though the positive or dogmatic
identifications are not forthcoming, apart from the victory over
death and the grave.

ODE 1 6

As the work of the husbandman is the plough
share : and the work of the steersman is the guidance
of the ship : so also my work is the Psalm of the
Lord : my craft and my occupation are in His praises ;
because His love hath nourished my heart, and even to
my lips His fruits He poured out. For my love is
the Lord, and therefore I will sing unto Him : for I
am made strong in His praise, and I have faith in Him.
I will open my mouth and His spirit will utter in me
the glory of the Lord and His beauty ; the work of
His hands and the operation of His ringers : the multi
tude of His mercies and the strength of His word.
For the word of the Lord searches out all things, both
the invisible and that which reveals His thought. For

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 29

the eye sees His works, and the ear hears His thought.
He spread out the earth and He settled the waters in
the sea : He measured the heavens and fixed the stars :
and He established the creation and set it up : and He
rested from His works : and created things run in their
courses, and do their works : and they know not how
to stand and be idle ; and His heavenly hosts are subject
to His word. The treasure-chamber of the light is
the Sun, and the treasury of the darkness is the night :
and He made the Sun for the day that it may be bright,
but night brings darkness over the face of the land ;
and their alternations one to the other speak the beauty
of the Lord : and there is nothing that is without the
Lord ; for He was before any thing came into being ;
and the worlds were made by His word, and by the
thought of His heart. Glory and honour to His
name. Hallelujah.

ODE 1 6. This Psalm is in its closing sentences speci
fically Christian, and it is clearly from the same author as
those that have immediately preceded. The theme is the
beauty of God's creation ; especially the writer considers
the heavens which are the works of God's fingers, he con
templates the < spacious firmament on high.' We frequently
catch refrains from the story of Creation. But curiously
the writer appears to avoid the mention of the moon : instead

30 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

of saying that God appointed the sun to rule the day and
the moon to rule the night, he says that 'the treasury of
the light is the sun, and the treasury of the darkness is — the
night ' : and he tries to work out this broken parallel by a
further statement about the offices of the sun and the darkness.
It would be, perhaps, too much to assume that he had some
reason for neglecting the moon : but the omission is curious.
The Psalm is certainly a beautiful one, especially in its opening
verses. These find an appropriate parallel in Clement of
Alexandria, who tells us : * We do not force the horse to
plough nor the bull to hunt, but we allure each species of
animal to the craft that suits it. So we also invite man
to the vision of the open heaven, and to the knowledge
of God, because he is of celestial birth. . . . Plough, in
deed, if ploughman thou be, but know God while thou
ploughest : sail, if thou love to voyage the seas, but make
thy appeal to the steersman on high.'

On examining the Ode more closely we detect an un
mistakable case of anti-Judaic polemic. The writer, after
describing the beauty of creation and the Lord's rest from
His works, goes on to say something which shows that
he does not mean to deduce the Jewish Sabbath from the
statements in Genesis. ' Created things run in their courses,
ajid do their works, and know not how to stand or be idle.9
Suppose we turn to Justin's Dialogue with Trypho^ c. 22,
where Justin is arguing with Trypho for the non-necessity of
circumcision and the Sabbath : ' I will declare to you and
to those who may wish to become proselytes,' says Justin,
'a divine word which I heard from the old man to whom
I owe my conversion. He said, " You observe that the
heavenly bodies do not idle nor keep sabbath. Remain, there-

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 31

fore, as you were born, do not keep sabbath or practise
circumcision." :

It is clear, then, that the i6th Ode means to say that
the Sabbath is not kept by the heavenly bodies j and as
it goes on to say 'and the [heavenly] hosts are subject
to His word,' it follows that God is regulating the motions of
the worlds on the Sabbath days as well as on the week-days :
a point which Justin expressly makes in c. 29, 'God under
takes the regulation of the world on this day, exactly as
on other days.'

The writer, then, is a Christian of the type of Justin
Martyr, who accepts the Gospel without the obligation of
the Law, and makes a quiet intimation of the position
which he takes towards the stricter Judaism. But we notice,
further, that the argument which underlies his verse is older
than Justin Martyr ; it is contained in the reply of the
ancient Christian whom Justin consulted on the question
of sabbath and circumcision ; he calls it a Divine word or
Oracle. It may, then, have come from some early Christian
handbook ; but, whether this be the case or not, it is a
dictum of the first century ; for the very old man who talked
with Justin was not inventing a solution for immediate per
plexities, but giving him a rule which prevailed in the Church
to which he belonged.

So it seems clear that the Ode is really Christian, and
that its Christianity is of a very early type, to judge from
the arguments involved in it.

32 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

ODE 17

I was crowned by my God : my crown is living :
and I was justified in my Lord : my incorruptible
salvation is He. I was loosed from vanity, and I was
not condemned : the choking bonds were cut off by
His hands : I received the face and the fashion of a
new person : and I walked in it and was saved ; and
the thought of truth led me on. And I walked after
it and did not wander. And all that have seen me
were amazed : and I was regarded by them as a
strange person. And He who knew and brought me
up is the Most High in all His perfection. And He
glorified me by His kindness, and raised my thought
to the height of His truth. And from thence He
gave me the way of His precepts and I opened the
doors that were closed, and brake in pieces the bars of
iron ; l but my iron melted and dissolved before me ;
nothing appeared closed to me : because I was the
door of everything. And I went over all my bond
men to loose them ; that I might not leave any man
bound or binding : and I imparted my knowledge with
out grudging : and my prayer was in my love : and I

1 Ps. cvii. 1 6.

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 33

sowed my fruits in hearts, and transformed them into
myself: and they received my blessing and lived ; and
they were gathered to me and were saved ; because
they were to me as my own members and I was their
head. Glory to Thee our head, the Lord Messiah.
Hallelujah.

ODE 17. This Psalm is one that we alluded to above in
connection with ' the crown of life ' that has been put upon the
writer's head. That it is a Christian Psalm is evident : the
Messiah or Christ is definitely referred to, and he is spoken of
as being to believers in the relation of the head to the members.
But we have again in this Psalm the peculiar change of per
sonality : this time it comes so imperceptibly that we might be
tempted to doubt the reality of the transition, if it were not for
the abruptness of the return from it at the close of the Psalm.
The breaking of the bars of iron must surely refer to the
Messiah : it need not be an allusion to the descent into Hades ;
for the problem of liberation of souls is stated in general terms :
all men are to be free ; there is to be no more one that binds
and one that is bound. The transformation of believers into
Christ's nature is also referred to : *I transformed them into
myself . . . they became my own members.'

ODE 1 8

My heart was lifted up in the love of the Most
High and was enlarged : that I might praise Him for
His name's sake. My members were strengthened

34 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

that they might not fall from His strength. Sick
nesses removed from my body, and it stood to the
Lord by His will. For His Kingdom is true. O
Lord, for the sake of them that are deficient do not
remove Thy word from me ! Neither for the sake of
their works do Thou restrain from me Thy perfection !
Let not the luminary be conquered by the darkness ;
nor let truth flee away from falsehood. Thou wilt
appoint me to victory ; our Salvation is Thy right
hand. And Thou wilt receive men from all quarters,
and Thou wilt preserve whosoever is held in evils :
Thou art my God. Falsehood and death are not in
Thy mouth : but Thy will is perfection ; and vanity
Thou knowest not, nor does it know Thee. And
error Thou knowest not, neither does it know Thee.
And ignorance appeared like a blind man, and like
the foam of the sea ; and they supposed of that vain
thing that it was something great ; and they too came
in likeness of it and became vain ; and those have
understood who have known and meditated ; and they
have not been corrupt in their imaginations ; for such
were in the mind of the Most High ; and they mocked at
them that were walking in error ; and they spake truth
from the inspiration which the Most High breathed

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 35

into them. Praise and great comeliness to His name.
Hallelujah.

ODE 1 8. The writer of this Psalm speaks as a prophet,
who has known the Divine visitation, and has felt its effect
both on mind and body, in the dispelling of error and the heal
ing of disease. He prays for a continuance of the heavenly gift
for the sake of the needy people to whom he gives his message.
He has evidently been regarded by them as a light and foolish
person, whose talk is like the foam on the wave of the sea.
But there are others who are inspired like himself, and who
mock at the unbelievers for their stupidity and ignorance.
We catch the echo of some serious controversy upon religious
matters, but the subject of the dispute is unknown. There are
no definitely Christian features in the Psalm.

ODE 20

I am a priest of the Lord, and to Him I do priestly
service : and to Him I offer the sacrifice of His thought.
For His thought is not like the thought of the world
nor the thought of the flesh, nor like them that work
carnally. The sacrifice of the Lord is righteousness, and
purity of heart and lips. Present your reins before Him
blamelessly : and let not thy heart do violence to heart,
nor thy soul to soul. Thou shalt not acquire a stranger
by the price of thy silver, neither shalt thou seek to
devour thy neighbour, neither shalt thou deprive him

36 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

of the covering of his nakedness. But put on the grace
of the Lord without stint ; and come into His Paradise
and make thee a garland from its tree, and put it on thy
head and be glad ; and recline on His rest, and glory
shall go before thee, and thou shalt receive of His
kindness and of His grace ; and thou shalt be flourish
ing in truth in praise of His holiness. Praise and
honour be to His name. Hallelujah.

ODE 20. This Psalm is a mixture of ethics and of
mysticism, of the golden rule and of the tree of life. The
writer, whether Jew or Christian, is wholly detached from
external ritual ; he calls himself a priest of God, but explains
that this means the thinking of God's thought, and that the
sacrifice he offers is the pure heart and life. He might be an
Essene, one of that strange company who did not frequent the
temple because they had purer sacrifices of their own. He
drops a few ethical maxims, such as we find in the Pentateuch,
protests against the owning of slaves (another Essene tenet)
and against taking the neighbour's garment in pledge. Then
he leaves morals and is away in search of the honey-dew and
milk of Paradise. There glory waits the soul that enters
into the Divine rest.

It is a beautiful Psalm, but one could not say of it, taken by
itself, that it was necessarily Christian ; though its affinities are
with Psalms that are definitely Christian. For the sacrifices
which the good man offers to God we may compare what
Lactantius says at the sixth book of his Divine Institutes :
* The real gift is mental soundness, the real sacrifice praise and

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 37

hymn ; for if God is invisible, then He must be worshipped
with things that are invisible. No religion, then, is true,
except that which stands in virtue and justice.'

ODE 21

My arms I lifted up to the Most High, even to
the grace of the Lord : because He had cast off my
bonds from me : and my Helper had lifted me up to
His Grace and to His Salvation. And I put off dark
ness and clothed myself with light, and my soul acquired
a body free from sorrow or affliction or pains. And
increasingly helpful to me was the thought of the
Lord, and His fellowship in incorruption : and I was
lifted up in His light ; and I served before Him, and
I became near to Him, praising and confessing Him.
My heart ran over and was found in my mouth : and
it arose upon my lips ; and the exultation of the
Lord increased on my face, and His praise likewise.
Hallelujah.

ODE 21. This Psalm is short, and somewhat obscure.
The reason for this lies in the fact that the writer is assuming
a mystical explanation of the * coats of skin ' in the third
chapter of Genesis, which are held to represent the ordinary
human body which has replaced a body originally clad in light.
See Ode 25, where the same idea is more definitely expressed,

38 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

of the acquisition of a light-body, and of its freedom from pain.
It is impossible to decide definitely from the reading of the
Psalm whether it is Christian or Jewish : if he was a Christian,
he was a very joyous Christian ; if he was a Jew, he knew the
salvation of Israel that comes out of Zion, and had the dew of
heaven upon his vineyard.

ODE 22

He who brought me down from on high, also
brought me up from the regions below ; and He who
gathers together the things that are betwixt is He also
who cast me down : He who scattered my enemies and
my adversaries : He who gave me authority over bonds
that I might loose them ; He that overthrew by my
hands the dragon with seven heads : and Thou hast
set me over his roots that I might destroy his seed :
Thou wast there and didst help me, and in every place
Thy name was blessed by me. Thy right hand de
stroyed his wicked poison ; and Thy hand levelled the
way for those who believe in Thee ; and Thou didst
choose them from the graves and didst separate them
from the dead. Thou didst take dead bones and didst
cover them with bodies; they were motionless, and
Thou didst give them energy for life. Thy way was
without corruption, and Thy face brought Thy world

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 39

to corruption : that everything might be dissolved, and
then renewed, and that the foundation for everything
might be Thy rock : and on it Thou didst build Thy
Kingdom ; and Thou wast the dwelling-place of the
saints. Hallelujah.

ODE 22. In this Psalm we seem to be nearer to the
known Psalter of Solomon than elsewhere. There is a
pointed reference to a dragon with seven heads whose seed
is to be destroyed, and whose wicked poison has found its
antidote in the Divine power. We think at once of the
description of Pompey as the great dragon in the second of
the published Psalms of Solomon. But dragons generally
are difficult to identify. Who, for instance, is the dragon
in Ps. Ixxiii. 14, whose heads are broken ? Is it Tiamat, the
Babylonian cosmic monster, or the Leviathan, whom the
faithful are to eat in the last day, or is it a real person ? In
Ezekiel xxix. 3 it is Pharaoh of Egypt that is called the great
dragon in the midst of the waters, but it might not be so easy
to say which Pharaoh : any political monster may be a beast
or a dragon : so in the present case we have to hunt around
among the fallen gods to find him. There has evidently been
a great slaughter of Jews, for the writer uses the imagery of
the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel, in order to show that God
can raise up His people from the gates of death : the ruin of all
things becomes the occasion for a new Kingdom founded upon
the rock.

The Psalm is one of those which are transferred to the
pages of the Pistis Sophia, where it is recited by Matthew from
an Ode of Solomon. It is suggested by Ryle and James that

40 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

the opening sentences are of a Gnostic character, from the
allusion to things above and things below and things between.
But the whole tenor of our Psalms is foreign to Gnosticism,
and I do not see any reason to introduce it as a factor in the
interpretation. If the Psalm is really the expression of some
person triumphing over a fallen tyrant, or of Israel personified
in such a situation, we have to search the political crises for
such a time of trial and recovery. And it is not easy to find
the solution. The Hadrianic wars are too late, and they were
followed by no recovery on the part of the Jews in Palestine.
Antiochus Epiphanes is too early, in every respect. The next
cases to examine are those of Pompey and Titus. Pompey is
already known as the dragon, and the destruction of the dragon
is historical. Titus, on the other hand, is a triumphant dragon
without a subsequent collapse : nor does there seem to be
in his case a sufficient recovery of Judaism to justify the
triumphant language of the Psalm. The statement that God
levelled the way for those who believe in Him seems to imply
a return from exile, in greater or less degree ; but this also is
not easy to justify from a historical point of view.

There is, however, nothing definitely Christian about the
Psalm, except that it is found in the company of Christian
Psalms. It seems to be a Jewish product, or at least the work
of a Judaeo-Christian.

ODE 23

Joy is of the saints ! and who shall put it on, but
they alone ? Grace is of the elect ! and who shall
receive it, except those who trust in it from the

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 41

beginning ? Love is of the elect ! And who shall
put it on except those who have possessed it from the
beginning ? Walk ye in the knowledge of the Most
High without grudging : to His exultation and to the
perfection of His knowledge. And His thought was
like a letter ; His will descended from on high, and it
was sent like an arrow which is violently shot from the
bow : and many hands rushed to the letter to seize it
and to take and read it : and it escaped their fingers
and they were affrighted at it and at the seal that was
upon it. Because it was not permitted to them to loose
its seal : for the power that was over the seal was
greater than they. But those who saw it went after
the letter that they might know where it would be
loosed, and who should read it and who should hear it.
But a wheel received it and came over it : and there
was with it a sign of the Kingdom and of the Govern
ment : and everything which tried to move the wheel
it mowed and cut down : and it gathered the multitude
of adversaries, and covered the rivers and crossed over
and rooted up many forests and made a broad path.
The head went down to the feet, for down to the feet
ran the wheel ; and that which was a sign upon it.

The letter was one of command, for there were included

F

42 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

in it all districts ; and there was seen at its head, the
head which was revealed, even the Son of Truth from
the Most High Father, and He inherited and took pos
session of everything. And the thought of the many
was brought to nought, and all the apostates hasted
and fled away. And those who persecuted and were
enraged became extinct.

And the letter was a great volume, which was
wholly written by the finger of God : and the name of
the Father was on it, and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, to rule for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

ODE 23. This is the most difficult of all the Psalms
in the collection, and I have almost despaired of being able
to explain it. It describes the descent from heaven of a
sealed document, with a message from God in it. The
description is something like that of the little sealed book
in the Apocalypse, which no one can open, except the
triumphant Lamb. If the allusion in the Apocalypse is to some
previous document which the author has incorporated, perhaps
the same thing may be true here. Some book may have
been published, claiming Divine Authority. What can it
have been ? A Gospel ? An Apocalypse ? It appeared
suddenly, unexpectedly, and met with opposition rather than
with universal acceptance. It came from the head and it
went down to the feet. If we may use the language of a
later Psalm in which the saints in Hades are called the feet
of Christ, we should say that the mysterious little book

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 43

conveyed a message to those below from one above, and that
it interpreted the region below to include the invisible world.
Was the little book then a < Descensus ad Inferos ' ? It is
impossible to decide with certainty. It contained some
pronounced statement concerning the Trinity, for we are
expressly told that it had the name of Father, Son and Holy
Ghost upon it. When any one writes in cipher, about
a document which itself appears to have been written in
cipher, for that is the natural meaning of a sealed book, we
ought not to be surprised if it is not quite obvious, two
thousand years later, what the writer meant or what he
was referring to.

ODE 24

The Dove fluttered over the Messiah, because He
was her head ; and she sang over Him and her voice
was heard ; and the inhabitants were afraid and the
sojourners were moved : the birds dropped their wings,
and all creeping things died in their holes : and the
abysses were opened which had been hidden ; and they
cried to the Lord like women in travail : and no food
was given to them, because it did not belong to them ;
and they sealed up the abysses with the seal of the
Lord. And they perished in the thought, those that
had existed from ancient times ; for they were corrupt
from the beginning ; and the end of their corruption

44 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

was life : and every one of them that was imperfect
perished : for it was not possible to give them a word
that they might remain : and the Lord destroyed the
imaginations of all them that had not the truth with
them. For they who in their hearts were lifted up
were deficient in wisdom, and so they were rejected,
because the truth was not with them. For the Lord
disclosed His way, and spread abroad His grace : and
those who understood it, know His holiness. Hal
lelujah.

ODE 24. The Psalm opens with a reference to the Baptism
of the Lord, when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a
Dove on the head of the Messiah. The occasion was one of
great dread to all created things, man and beast and creeping
things shared the terror. The abysses, personified as living
creatures, cried out in pain. They were sealed up and ended,
as belonging to the order of non-existent things. Men also
whose hearts were proud were rejected, when the way of the
Lord was revealed and His holiness known.

In this Psalm, with its reference to the abysses, and the
things which are not and are brought to nought, we seem to
be nearer to the world of Gnostic ideas : but it would be difficult
to say that any of the catchwords or peculiar terms of Gnos
ticism are here. If we are right in referring the Psalm to the
Baptism of the Lord, we are only furnishing one more proof of
the extraordinary prominence given to that event in the early
Church, for which it was the beginning of the Preaching :

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 45

and we need not be surprised that the event should be treated
it many ways, both theological and hymnological.

If it is not the Baptism that is alluded to, it must be the
Crucifixion, and in that case we must assume an unknown
incident connected with the Crucifixion, comparable with the
appearance of the Dove at the Baptism. In that case the
plaint of the Abysses is another allusion to the descent into
Hades.

But there is a special reason why I feel sure that the
Baptism must be the incident to which reference is made : I
think we can say that a written Gospel has here been employed,
but not a canonical Gospel. It will be remembered that
Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho, c. 88, takes his
account of the Baptism from a source which is either un-
canonical, or, if canonical, is interpolated. When Jesus went
down into the water, a fire was kindled in the Jordan, and when
he came up from the water, the Holy Spirit, like a dove, fluttered
upon him : and Justin says expressly that this was recorded by the
Apostles of our Christ. This ' fluttering down ' of the dove is
very near indeed to the language of our Ode. And the
peculiar expression turns up so often in the early Fathers, that
we are sure it had a written origin in a book that was widely
accessible — that is to say, in a lost Gospel.

ODE 25

I was rescued from my bonds and unto Thee,
my God, I fled : for Thou art the right hand of my
Salvation and my helper. Thou hast restrained those
that rise up against me, and I shall see him no more :

46 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

because Thy face was with me, which saved me by
Thy grace. But I was despised and rejected in the
eyes of many : and I was in their eyes like lead. And
strength was mine from Thyself and help : Thou didst
set me a lamp at my right hand and at my left : and
in me there shall be nothing that is not bright : and I
was clothed with the covering of Thy Spirit, and Thou
didst remove from me my raiment of skins. For Thy
right hand lifted me up and removed sickness from
me : and I became mighty in the truth, and holy
by Thy righteousness ; and all my adversaries were
afraid of me ; and I became admirable by the name of
the Lord, and was justified by His gentleness, and
His rest is for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

ODE 25. In this Psalm we are back again in the region
of personal experience, and there is no allusion to any definite
historical event. The writer, whether Christian or Jew,
has been brought out of spiritual bondage into liberty : he
has had to face contempt and scorn, but the Lord has filled
him with brightness and covered him with beauty, and given
him health of mind and body : his enemies have turned back,
and his portion is with the justified saints of the Most High.
It is possible that this Psalm may be meant to express the
experience of the Messiah, emerging from His conflicts into
victory : in that case it need not be the Christian conception
of the Messiah, but might conceivably be such a human

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 47

representation as we find in the Psalms of the Pharisees (e.g.
Ps. 17, which is our Ps. 60). But our collection, as to its
first block of Psalms, is certainly of a later period than the
Pharisee Psalms, so we ought to hesitate before ascribing the
same Messianic ideas to the two parts of the hymnal. For
the allusion to the coat of skins, see also Ode 21. Here
again we have the statement that the spiritual body, which
the writer has recovered, was free from the ills that flesh is
heir to.

ODE 26

I poured out praise to the Lord, for I am His :
and I will speak His holy song, for my heart is
with Him. For His harp is in my hands, and the
Odes of His rest shall not be silent. I will cry unto
Him from my whole heart : I will praise and exalt
Him with all my members. For from the east and
even to the west is His praise : and from the south
and even to the north is the confession of Him : and
from the top of the hills to their utmost bound is
His perfection. Who can write the Psalms of the
Lord, or who read them? or who can train his soul
for life, that his soul may be saved, or who can rest on
the Most High, so that with His mouth he may
speak ? Who is able to interpret the wonders of the
Lord ? For he who could interpret would be dissolved

4 8 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

and would become that which is interpreted. For
it suffices to know and to rest : for in rest the singers
stand, like a river which has an abundant fountain, and
flows to the help of them that seek it. Hallelujah.

ODE 26. This beautiful song of praise recounts the good
ness and greatness of the Lord. All within the writer
magnifies the great Name, but all within is insufficient to tell
out what waits to be told. His praise is wide-spread to
the utmost bound of earth and beyond the bound of the
everlasting hills. The creature cannot express God's praise
perfectly ; if he could, he would be no longer a creature : he
would be the Word, and not the interpreter of the Word.
So it suffices to know and to rest, while at our feet the river
of grace rolls on, an unchanging flood :

' Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.'

It is impossible to say whether the Psalm, as detached from
the rest of the collection, is Jewish or Christian.

ODE 27

I stretched out my hands and worshipped1 the
Lord : for the extension of my hands is His sign : and
my expansion is the upright tree (or cross).

ODE 27. This tiny Psalm is Christian, and is based upon
the early Christian fondness for finding the Cross everywhere
in the outward world : in the handle of the labourer's plough,

1 Lit., sanctified.

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 49

in the mast and yards of the seaman's ship ; and in the human
body, when the man stands erect in the act of prayer with
outstretched arms. There can, therefore, be no doubt that
this is a Christian Psalm, and the figurative language which it
employs is characteristic of the second century and not un
known in the first century. Justin Martyr, for example, sees
the Cross in the outspread arms of Moses in the battle against
Amalek ; but so does Barnabas also : and the same thought is
involved in the conclusion of the Teaching of the Apostles,
where an outspread cross in the sky is one of the signs of the
Advent and answers to the Sign of the Son of Man in Matthew.
So it is very likely that the figure in our Psalm is one of the
oldest forms of Christian symbolic teaching. We shall find it
used again in the 42nd Psalm, which may, "therefore, be by the
same hand as the present one : otherwise it would be an imi
tation of it.

ODE 28

As the wings of doves over their nestlings and
the mouths of their nestlings towards their mouths, so
also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart : my
heart is delighted and exults : .

. I believed ; therefore I

was at rest ; for faithful is He in whom I have believed :
He has richly blessed me and my head is with Him :
and the sword shall not divide me from Him, nor the
scimitar. For I am ready before destruction comes :

50 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

and I have been set on His immortal pinions. And
immortal life will come forth and give me to drink,
and from that life is the spirit within me, and it cannot
die, for it lives. They who saw me -marvelled at me,
because I was persecuted, and they supposed that I
was swallowed up : for I seemed to them as one of the
lost ; and my oppression became my salvation ; and I
was their reprobation because there was no zeal in me.
Because I did good to every man I was hated, and they
came round me like mad dogs, who ignorantly attack
their masters, for their thought is corrupt and their
understanding changed. But I was carrying water in
my right hand, ' that I might put out their flame ' ; and
their bitterness I endured by my sweetness ; and I did
not perish, for I was not their brother, nor was my
birth like theirs, and they sought for my death and
did not find it : for I was older than the memorial of
them ; and vainly did they make attack upon me and
those who, without reward, came after me : they sought
to destroy the memorial of him who was before them :
for the thought of the Most High cannot be anticipated :
and His heart is superior to all wisdom. Hallelujah.

ODE 28. This exquisite Psalm has the music in it of the
4 Quis separabit ? ' of Romans viii. Nor sword nor scimitar

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 51

divide the believer from the Lord. In some respects the
Psalm appears to be Messianic in a Christian sense, for the
writer concludes his exulting strain over enemies who had
come round him like mad dogs and had left him for dead,
with the remark that it was not possible for them to blot out
the memory of one who existed before them, and who was of
a different birth from theirs. He also speaks of their attacks
as having been directed against his followers as well as himself.
Perhaps, then, the writer is speaking, in these verses, as if in
the person of Christ.

ODE 29

The Lord is my hope : in Him I shall not be con
founded. For according to His praise He made me,
and according to His goodness He gave unto me :
and according to His mercies He exalted me : and
according to His excellent beauty He set me on high :
and brought me up out of the depths of Sheol, and
from the mouth of death He drew me : and I laid my
enemies low, and He justified me by His grace. For
I believed in the Lord's Messiah, and it appeared to
me that He is the Lord ; and He showed me His
sign : and He led me by His light, and gave me the
rod of His power ; that I might subdue the imagina
tions of the peoples, and the power of the men of
might to bring them low : to make war by His word,

52 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

and to take victory by His power. And the Lord
overthrew my enemy by His word; and he became
like the stubble which the wind carries away ; and
I gave praise to the Most High because He exalted
me His servant and the son of His handmaid. Hal
lelujah.

ODE 29. Some one wrote this Psalm, who was a follower
of the Christ and had recognised Him to be the Lord. Out
of great conflicts he had been brought into the place of victory :
his enemies had become like the straw before the wind : he has
passed through deep distresses, which he speaks of figuratively
as the pains of Sheol and the gates of death. But for the refer
ence to the Lordship of the Messiah and to faith in Him, we
might have imagined this Psalm to belong to the ancient
Psalter : we shall be justified in regarding it as a Judaeo-
Christian composition.

ODE 30

Fill ye waters for yourselves from the living foun
tain of the Lord : for it is opened to you : and come
all ye thirsty, and take the draught ; and rest by the
fountain of the Lord. For fair it is and pure, and
gives rest to the soul. Much more pleasant are its
waters than honey ; and the honeycomb of bees is
not to be compared with it. For it flows forth from

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 53

the lips of the Lord, and from the heart of the Lord is
its name. And it came infinitely and invisibly : and
until it was set in the midst they did not know it :
blessed are they who have drunk therefrom and have
found rest thereby. Hallelujah.

ODE 30. The Psalm is an invitation to the thirsty, some
what in the manner of Isaiah Iv. The water of life, which
here is explained to be the teaching of the Lord, is flowing
from an open fountain, whose waters, to use the language
of the I gth Psalm in the canonical Psalter, are * sweeter than
honey and the honeycomb.' The Ode is not so far removed
from Old Testament thought and expression that we can
positively call it a Christian composition. The writer is fond
of the similitude of honey and the honeycomb : we find it, for
instance, again in our fortieth Ode, where we have it for the
opening similitude.

' Like the honey that drops from the comb of the bees . . .
so is my hope on Thee, O God.'

But this Psalm, also, appears at first sight to be destitute of
specific Christian colouring.

The fountain, however, whose waters come without limit,
and invisibly, corresponds to the unexpected appearance of
Christ and Christ's teaching in the world, when there stood in
the midst One whom they knew not.

ODE 31

The abysses were dissolved before the Lord : and
darkness was destroyed by His appearance : error went

54 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

astray and perished at His hand : and folly gave no
path to walk in, and was submerged by the truth of
the Lord. He opened his mouth and spake grace
and joy : and he spake a new song' of praise to His
name : and he lifted up his voice to the Most High,
and offered to Him the sons that were with him.1 And
His face was justified, for thus His holy Father had
given to Him. Come forth, ye that have been afflicted,
and receive joy, and possess your souls by His grace ;
and take to you immortal life. And they made me a
debtor when I rose up, me who had not been a debtor : 2
and they divided my spoil, though nothing was due to
them. But I endured and held my peace and was
silent,3 as if not moved by them. But I stood un
shaken like a firm rock which is beaten by the waves
and endures. And I bore their bitterness for humility's
sake : in order that I might redeem my people, and
inherit it, and that I might not make void my promises
to the fathers,4 to whom I promised the salvation of
their seed. Hallelujah.

ODE 31. The Psalm is Messianic, and records how the
Christ fulfilled the promises which, in a pre-existent state, he

1 Lit. in His hands. Cf. Is. viii. 17; Heb. ii. 13.
2 ^ Cor. v. 21. 3 i Pet. ii. 23. * Rom. xv. 8 ; Luke i. 55.

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 55

had made to the fathers. He has closed the abysses and
banished error and vanity. With a new song in his mouth,
he appears before God with the children whom God has given
him. His similitude is the rock against which the waves had
beaten in vain. It stands firm, whether the waves advance or
retire. Here Christian speech comes near to the language of
the Stoics. One thinks of Marcus Aurelius, and his advice to
' be like the promontory against which the waves continually
break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water
around it.' l One thinks also of Ignatius, and his advice * to
stand steady like the beaten anvil.' 2

ODE 32

To the blessed there is joy from their hearts,
and light from him that dwells in them : and words
from the Truth, who was self-originate : for He is
strengthened by the holy power of the Most High :
and He is unperturbed for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

ODE 32. Joy, Light, Inspiration, Strength, and Calmness
belong to the believer through Him that dwells within.

ODE 33

Again Grace ran and forsook corruption, and
came down in Him to bring it to nought ; and He
destroyed perdition from before Him, and devastated

1 Medit. iv. 49- 2 Ad Polyc, 3.

56 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

all its order ; and He stood on a lofty summit and
uttered His voice from one end of the earth to the
other : and drew to Him all those who obeyed Him ;
and there did not appear as it were an evil person,
but there arose a perfect virgin who was proclaiming
and calling and saying, O ye sons of men, return ye,
and ye daughters of men, live ye : and forsake the
ways of that corruption and draw near unto me, and
I will enter in to you, and will bring you forth from
perdition, and make you wise in the ways of truth :
you shall not be destroyed nor perish : hear ye me
and be redeemed. For the grace of God I am telling
among you : and by my means you shall be redeemed,
and become blessed. I am your judge ; and they who
have put me on shall not be injured : but they shall
possess the new world that is incorrupt : my chosen
ones walk in me, and my ways I will make known
.to them that seek me, and I will make them trust in
my name. Hallelujah.

ODE 33. Apparently this Psalm is Messianic, though
Christ is not named. He must be the one that rises from the
dead and sends forth his triumphant voice to the ends of the
earth. A virgin also stands and proclaims, who must be either
the Divine Wisdom (the language is very like that of the eighth

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 57

chapter of Proverbs) or the Church. She promises salvation
by Divine Grace and immortality in a new world to those
that walk in her ways.

ODE 34

No way is hard where there is a simple heart.
Nor is there any wound where the thoughts are
upright : nor is there any storm in the depth of the
illuminated thought : where one is surrounded by
every beautiful place, there is nothing that is divided,
the likeness of what is below : He is the one that is
above ; for everything is really above : what is below
is nothing but the imagination of those that are
without knowledge. Grace has been revealed for
your salvation. Believe and live and be saved. Hal
lelujah.

ODE 34. All the hard things are easy, where the soul
itself is right : no storms invade the hidden place of communion
with God. Evil itself becomes unreal, and that which is
beneath exists not before that which is above.

ODE 35

The dew of the Lord in quietness He distilled

upon me : and the cloud of peace He caused to rise

H

5 8 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

over my head, which guarded me continually ; it was
to me for salvation : everything was shaken and they
were affrighted ; and there came forth from them
a smoke and a judgment ; and I was keeping quiet
in the order of the Lord : more than shelter was He
to me, and more than foundation. And I was carried
like a child by his mother : and He gave me milk,
the dew of the Lord : and I grew great by His
bounty, and rested in His perfection, and I spread out
my hands in the lifting up of my soul : and I was
made right with the Most High, and I was saved with
Him. Hallelujah.

ODE 35. The dew lies on the branch of the man that
sings this Psalm : Divine Peace guards him like a sheltering
cloud. The Lord is his sure defence in the day of evil.
Mother's arms are his place and mother's milk his portion.
* No cradled child more softly lies than I. Come soon,
eternity.'

ODE 36

I rested on the Spirit of the Lord : and the
Spirit raised me on high : and made me stand on my
feet in the height of the Lord, before His perfection
and His glory, while I was praising Him by the
composition of His songs. The Spirit brought me

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 59

forth before the face of the Lord : and, although
a son of man, I was named the Illuminate, the Son
of God : while I praised amongst the praising ones,
and great was I amongst the mighty ones. For
according to the greatness of the Most High, so
He made me : and like His own newness He re
newed me ; and He anointed me from His own
perfection : and I became one of His neighbours ;
and my mouth was opened, like a cloud of dew ; and
my heart poured out as it were a gushing stream
of righteousness, and my access to Him was in peace ;
and I was established by the spirit of His government.
Hallelujah.

ODE 36. This is a perplexing Psalm, from a theological
point of view. It is almost impossible to determine whether
the Psalmist is speaking in his own name, or in that of
the Messiah ; or whether it is an alternation of one with
the other. It seems almost a necessity, when the Holy Spirit
is spoken of as a Mother, that the offspring should be the Son
of God. If this be the right interpretation, then the Illu
minated Son of God is Christ. But the latter part of the
Psalm seems to be in too low a strain for this interpretation :
to be one of those who are near to God is certainly not
orthodox theology, though it may conceivably be Adoptionist :
and the heart that pours out righteousness and makes its
offering in peace seems rather to be the language that describes
one of the pious in Israel.

60 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

ODE 37

I stretched out my hands to my Lord : and to the
Most High I raised my voice : and I spake with the
lips of my heart ; and He heard me, when my voice
reached Him : His answer came to me, and gave me
the fruits of my labours ; and it gave me rest by the
Grace of the Lord. Hallelujah.

ODE 37. A colourless Psalm, something like one of the
shorter and more elementary Psalms of the Hebrew Psalter.
The writer has cried to God : his prayer has been heard : his
heart has appealed, and an answer has come. His work has
been followed by divine blessing.

ODE 38

I went up to the light of truth as if into a chariot :
and the truth took me and led me : and carried me
across pits and gullies; and from the rocks and the
waves it preserved me : and it became to me an instru
ment of Salvation : and set me on the arms of im
mortal life : and it went with me and made me rest,
and suffered me not to wander, because it was the
Truth ; and I ran no risk, because I walked with Him ;
and I did not make an error in anything because I

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 61

obeyed the Truth. For Error flees away from it :
and meets it not : but the Truth proceeds in the right
path, and whatever I did not know, it made clear to
me, all the poisons of error, and the plagues which
announce the fear of death : and I saw the destroyer
of destruction, when the bride who is corrupted is
adorned ; and the bridegroom who corrupts and is
corrupted ; and I asked the Truth, * Who are these ? '
and he said to me, This is the deceiver and the error :
and they are alike in the beloved and in his bride : and
they lead astray and corrupt the whole world : and
they invite many to the banquet, and give them to
drink of the wine of their intoxication, and remove
their wisdom and knowledge, and so they make them
without intelligence ; and then they leave them ; and
then these go about like madmen corrupting : seeing
that they are without heart, nor do they seek for it.
And I was made wise so as not to fall into the hands
of the Deceiver ; and I rejoiced in myself because the
Truth went with me, and I was established and lived
and was redeemed, and my foundations were laid on
the hand of the Lord : because He established me.
For He set the root and watered it and fixed it and
blessed it ; and its fruits are for ever. It struck deep

62 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

and sprung up and spread out, and was full and en
larged ; and the Lord alone was glorified in His
planting and in His husbandry : by His care and by
the blessing of His lips, by the beautiful planting of
His right hand : and by the discovery of His planting,
and by the thought of His mind. Hallelujah.

ODE 38. The Psalm opens with a beautiful description
of the power of the truth over those that surrender to it.
Truth becomes to them guidance in all difficult and rough
and dangerous places. But the Psalm is not merely a Psalm
of the Truth, it is a Psalm concerning Truth and Error.
They appear to stand like Christ and Antichrist. We are
tempted to believe that the writer had at one time been
brought face to face with some special outbreak of erroneous
teaching, one of the many Antichrists of the first century.
There are some things which suggest Simon Magus and his
Helena, who went about to mislead the faithful. It is, how
ever, useless to try and define the situation more closely.
Whatever form the attractions of Truth and Error took to the
Psalmist, he tells us that he escaped the Circean blandishments,
and sailed past the Sirens. His foundations were in the holy
mountain ; his growth was in God and of God. God planted,
God watered, God gave the increase. The Father was the
husbandman.

ODE 39

Great rivers are the power of the Lord : and they
carry headlong those who despise Him : and entangle

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 63

their paths : and they sweep away their fords, and catch
their bodies and destroy their lives. For they are
more swift than lightning and more rapid, and those
who cross them in faith are not moved ; and those who
walk on them without blemish shall not be afraid.
For the sign in them is the Lord ; and the sign is the
way of those who cross in the name of the Lord : put
on, therefore, the name of the Most High, and know
Him : and you shall cross without danger, for the rivers
will be subject to you. The Lord has bridged them
by His word ; and He walked and crossed them on
foot : and His footsteps stand firm on the water, and
are not injured ; they are as firm as a tree that is truly
set up. And the waves were lifted up on this side
and on that, but the footsteps of our Lord Messiah
stand firm and are not obliterated and are not defaced.
And a way has been appointed for those who cross
after Him and for those who perfect the course of faith
in Him and worship His name. Hallelujah.

ODE 39. When I first read this Psalm I thought that we
had another historical landmark, in the allusion to some great
accident connected with the sudden rise of one of the great
Oriental rivers. But upon reflection, I have come to the con
clusion that the writer is speaking of disasters generally, under
the natural figure of a rising and rushing river. In such times

64 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

of flood the unbelievers find no footing and are swept away :
believers, on the other hand, walk the waters like their Lord
and with their Lord. Perhaps there is a reference to Isaiah
xliii. 2, * When thou passest through the waters I will be with
thee.' The same promise appears to be quoted in Psalms of
Solomon vi. 5, * When he passeth through rivers, yea, through
the surge of the sea, he shall not be affrighted.' Their feet
stand firm where His feet had stood unmoved. Here the
background of the teaching is the account of our Lord's walking
on the sea of Galilee. The reference is valuable, for we have
hardly any other allusion to events recorded in the Gospel,
beyond the Birth, Baptism, and Crucifixion, to which we have
already referred. The paucity of parallels in the new Psalter
to the New Testament should be one of the strongest reasons
for believing that, as regards the major part of the collection,
we are dealing with very early matter.

ODE 40

As the honey distils from the comb of the bees,
and the milk flows from the woman that loves her
children, so also is my hope on Thee, my God. As
the fountain gushes out its water, so my heart gushes
out the praise of the Lord and my lips utter praise to
Him, and my tongue His psalms. And my face
exults with His gladness, and my spirit exults in His
love, and my soul shines in Him : and reverence con
fides in Him ; and redemption in Him stands assured :

AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER 65

and His abundance is immortal life, and those who
participate in it are incorrupt. Hallelujah.

ODE 40. An exquisite Psalm from what St. Bernard
would call the 'anima sitiens Deum.' Praise flows out of his
life and from his lips as honey drops from the comb or milk
from the breast. God's gladness makes his face without to
shine, and his soul within to be radiant. If mortality is not
quite swallowed up of life, it is irradiated by it. There is
assurance of faith and the confident hope of immortality.

ODE 41

All the Lord's children will praise Him, and
will collect the truth of His faith. And His children
shall be known to Him. Therefore we will sing in
His love : we live in the Lord by His grace : and life
we receive in His Messiah : for a great day has shined
upon us : and marvellous is He who has given us
of His glory. Let us, therefore, all of us unite
together in the name of the Lord, and let us honour
Him in His goodness, and let our faces shine in
His light : and let our hearts meditate in His love by
night and by day. Let us exult with the joy of the
Lord. All those will be astonished that see me.
For from another race am I : for the Father of truth
remembered me : he who possessed me from the

66 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALTER

beginning : for His bounty begat me, and the thought
of His heart : and His Word is with us in all our
way ; the Saviour who makes alive and does not reject
our souls : the man who was humbled, and exalted by
His own righteousness, the Son of the Most High
who appeared in the perfection of His Father; and
light dawned from the Word that was beforetime in
Him ; the Messiah is truly one, and He was known
before the foundation of the world, that He might save
souls for ever by the truth of His name : a new song
arises from those who love Him. Hallelujah.

ODE 41. This Psalm, again, is Messianic, but certainly
not in the prophetic sense. The writer knows that the
Son of God is come. The glorious day of which prophets
spoke has dawned : the dayspring from on high has become
the noon-tide glory. Christ, who was humbled, is now
exalted ; the Word, who existed before the foundation of
the world, has appeared. The language finds its nearest
.parallel in the Johannine theology.

The writer seems to say that he is sprung from another
race. Is it that he is of Gentile origin and persuaded to dwell
in the tents of Shem ? That would agree well with the
general Palestinian origin of the Psalms. In that case he has
become sufficiently Hebraized to sing Zion's songs in a
Zionite manner : and to praise God night and day, where
a Gentile would naturally have done it by day and night.

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